Ribery stars on comeback for Bayern Munich in German Cup
BERLIN (AP) — Franck Ribery starred on his return from a thigh injury to help Bayern Munich reach the German Cup semifinals with a comfortable 3-0 win over Schalke on Wednesday.
Bayern could next face Borussia Dortmund after being drawn against the winner of the postponed quarterfinal involving third-tier Sportfreunde Lotte.
Dortmund's game at Lotte was called off Tuesday due to heavy snowfall and a waterlogged pitch. A new date for the game has yet to be announced, while the semifinals will be played April 25-26.
Also Wednesday, Borussia Moenchengladbach defeated Hamburger SV 2-1 away to line up a semifinal against Eintracht Frankfurt, a 1-0 winner over Arminia Bielefeld on Tuesday.
Ribery made an immediate impact in Munich, setting up Robert Lewandowski to open the scoring with a chip over goalkeeper Ralf Faehrmann in the third minute.
The French winger was involved again for Bayern's second, sending through Lewandowski, who drew Faehrmann away from goal and then crossed for Thiago Alcantara to head into the unguarded net in the 16th minute.
It got worse for the visitors when Ribery pulled the ball back for Lewandowski to shoot his second from a central position inside half an hour. It took Lewandowski's tally across all competitions to 30 so far for the season.
The 33-year-old Ribery hadn't played since the end of January after picking up the injury in training, and was taken off for Kingsley Coman in the 67th minute.
Seemingly content with its comfortable lead, Bayern kept Schalke at bay for the second half without exerting the effort that led to the goals in the first.
The visitors' miserable evening was completed when Holger Badstuber was sent off late in the game with his second yellow card on his second return to Munich. Former teammate Arjen Robben asked the referee to reconsider but to no avail.
Badstuber, who joined Schalke on loan from Bayern in the winter transfer period, was celebrated by the home fans as he left the pitch.
Earlier, two penalties were enough for Moenchengladbach in the other quarterfinal.
The recently prolific Lars Stindl broke the deadlock from the spot minutes after the restart, awarded when Mergim Mavraj brought Patrick Herrmann down.
It was Stindl's eighth goal in six games across all competitions.
Raffael made it 2-0 with another minutes later, this time after Matthias Ostrzolek fouled Jonas Hofmann.
American forward Bobby Wood grabbed Hamburg's consolation goal with a fine finish inside the far corner in injury time.
Stindl missed a ball boy's attempt to shake his hand in the formalities before kickoff, but he apologized afterward and presented the young match official his jersey by way of apology.
"Sorry!! I'm also always still nervous before such a game!" the 'Gladbach captain said on Twitter. He also retweeted a reply from a sponsor to say the ball boy was delighted with the response.
